Stitch in Time March 2012

**BeyondTheNineSquares** · #1 03-01-2012, 01:23 AM

Greetings all. It is a new month and I greet it with mixed emotions since I am still without a computer to replace my dead one, still without glasses, in need of more eye surgery, and still without income but for a tiny 2 hour a week teaching job I love.

On the bright side, I'm managing without glasses, delaying surgery, getting by without a camera thanks to my cell phone, and the borrowed and half broken old computer to keeping me somewhat involved in what I need to do. The weather here is amazing, and I'm still in my home for a while longer anyway. I don't read the papers much, so I'm hopeful of finding work soon. Didn't like what the paper said on the subject to hanging onto faith and not what the reporters wrote.

I'm getting lots of writing done, some sewing too. Crocheted some stuff until it got too warm for scarves, and I'm still seeking jobs, networking, and writing a variety of resumes since like chocolate, you can never have enough.

Hope y'all are doing okay.

EvaJ · #2 03-01-2012, 10:17 AM

Dressing change for John this morning. He had a bad night with lots of pain. Spent most of the night in the lounge chair. Hopefully when they change all the heavy bandage it will relieve some of the pressure. He said he is better this morning.

Martha, sorry about all your problems. Hope something comes through for you soon. We have been in your shoes and did lose a house. We just picked ourselves up and started again.

Irrylath · #3 03-01-2012, 12:21 PM

Martha+Eva

I'm working on creating an inventory for D. I. Ent. with my knitting. I want to have a booth at the local farmer's market, so must have product! Catching up with some watercolor commissions, portfolio pieces, and dealing with animal health issues. Each animal has his own perscription food...oy...

Peace!
Irry

EvaJ · #4 03-01-2012, 02:10 PM

Has been a busy morning. Got John's dressing changed and because of the pain the doctor gave him some Vicodin to take. We stopped and got it filled and he has taken the first one so we will see if it helps.

Before we left my sister called and we talked for quite a while. We don't talk very often so we had some catching up to do.

Took some before pictures of the things I got at Goodwill the other day and thought I would show you them this way before cleanup. As you can see the hair and clothing has to be worked on. These are all dolls from 1964 and 1965. Then got the neat little chair, sorry you can't see more of it and the wicker basket that will become a doll suitcase. And the little brand new sweater that is suppose to be for a bear but will work great on a doll. All this for a little over $14 so I should be able to make money on everything.

**BeyondTheNineSquares** · #5 03-01-2012, 03:25 PM

Thanks. There are times life happens all at once and I get battle weary. There is also the fact that starting over would seem less threatening if it weren't when I'm 50. It will be okay. Thanks for listening. Most things in life are good. It is only the money part that . . . with a headache and 2 hours of sleep i can't think of a word to finish that with which wouldn't get bleeped. Sigh. Time to go teach story telling to 25 kids 3 years to 6 years old. lol Love it.

Have a great day all.

Aral · #6 03-01-2012, 03:42 PM

Glad you could log on Martha to start March thread. Good luck with everything.

Irre Hi

nice to see you.

Eva always such a pleasure to see your little ones scruffy and then all made up.

And hi all and happy March. Over here it is almost springtime.. only one or so month to go or maybe two.... but we are seeing it almost appear on the horizon

Lots of earthquakes here last night... a bit close to comfort as the epic centre was only 10 km away - that's what ca. 8 miles or so- we will see what will happen if anything

Here is a photo of my wip rug called " Hof " it inspired by a salmon river that runs by a farmstead that was a sacred Hof in the viking times. The old Gods were worshipped there specially Thor.

**DrDebby** · #7 03-01-2012, 05:21 PM

Martha, thank you for starting the Stitch. Sorry to hear that nothing much has changed.

Eva, sorry about John's pain. I'm surprised they didn't give him the good stuff right away and let him piddle about with OTC pain killers. There are a lot of nerves in the head. Good to hear there isn't a need for a skin graft. Nope, haven't touched the painting. I've been trying to catch up on chores. I plan on painting later this afternoon instead of doing my taxes.

It's a good thing you see the potential in those dolls. I'd have passed them right by.

Irry, when does your farmer's market start? Don't over stress yourself. As long as you have something to put out so they can see your quality of work and offer to take commissions you should do fine.

Sigrun, so good to see the rug coming together. I like the name and the significance.

Margo, caught your post on last month's thread. Sorry you hate the water brush. Maybe if you thought of it as a flex tip marker instead of a brush that would help. That's all I'm using, but I'm feeling more comfortable with it than the brush. Probably because of the association I have of it being more like a marker.

I've been catching up on chores. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming. DH said he'd leave me with plenty of fire wood and a clean kitchen before he went back to work today.

I got the fire wood. The kitchen was clean about noon time yesterday. But, by evening, the crock pot roast he was cooking for his lunch was done. And, he made stir fry for me for dinner... I have to admit, the man likes to cook and does it well. He just left the crock pot and the wok and the prep stuff and the dinner dishes.

I was going to start on my taxes today, but think I'll paint instead.

EvaJ · #8 03-01-2012, 06:04 PM

The rug looks interesting and I sure love to see your wip and then the finished.

I cleaned up the dolls and set the hair on two of them. The other two not much you can do with it when it is so short. I am doing laundry as the basket was full and all those doll clothes needed washing too. No use to do the doll clothes by hand when a load of our clothes had to go in anyway.

Debby, you have such a wonderful hubby who like to cook. Mine, I have no such luck. He has never been able to cook. I have dished to do but I will get to them later after dinner. John spilled a protein drink on the kitchen floor and that stuff is very sticky so I had to get that stuff cleaned right away. I think his hand just gave out and down the plastic bottle went. Icky, icky but the floor is now clean.

poochemio · #9 03-01-2012, 08:14 PM

The rug is turning out very cool Sigrun, thanks for the back story.

My guy doesn't cook either, but he does order out quite well, and is never averse to treating me to lunch or dinner when I'm not in the mood, which has been pretty frequent the last few years. He will man the grill if I hand him a timer. He has been cleaning the kitchen over half the time since we moved and I no longer have a dishwasher. That's nice, he's even reached the point where it doesn't take him half the day to do it even nicer!

Debby the only downside of pretending the waterbrush is a maker is I've never played with markers all that much. Sharpies stink and bleed through the page, and I have just started actually using my Pitt Brush pens on a regular basis. Hate it or not it is just the tool I need for sketching in busy places, and I'm not giving that up so...I went out in the cold wind today and walked around the property sketching this and that. Figured adverse conditions abound so why not get used to sketching in them. Dried the paint on the page quickly but also on the palette. After that I opened my sketchbook that the puppy sketches are in and every one that isn't already painted I'm using gouache and water brush on it. I will be ready to use this wherever, soon. Itching for my sable though! And Debby painting is fun and much easier on the hands than adding layer after layer with pencils. I have the watercolor pencils and I like them, but it seems to take much more work to do something than with a paint brush.

Eva, another good haul. Sorry John wasn't able to sleep last night, hope the vicodin helps.

Martha dear I wish I had some sort of idea for you. Multiple resumes great idea. Maybe someone will bring you a newer computer, ask the universe and sometimes these things appear. Sending you a hug and positive thoughts.

**BeyondTheNineSquares** · #10 03-01-2012, 10:44 PM

Thanks everyone. I love what I'm doing yet hate having to put a price on doing what i'm called to do. Something will work out. Maybe i'll find a rich husband lol I don't go out much, though. lol

Granola Girl · #11 03-02-2012, 10:28 AM

Good morning! I popped by the Stitch, but it was the wrong one (February)... I can tell it's been a while. Anyway, I cut & pasted the post I put there.

Just need to add hellos to Martha (sounds like you've still got your hands full

), Sigrun (loving the curves & the lights & shadows you're filling in) and another face I don't know, Irry... you don't live so far from me! Did you get hit with snow this week too?

Eva... so glad John's procedure went well! Sounds like you both could use a relaxing weekend though. Nice junk store haul... Have fun with them!

Hi Margo, we haven't met yet... where's the land of enchantment? Sounds beautiful.

We finally got some decent snow this week. It's been such a weird winter, almost no snow and rarely below -10C, so wrong. But it looks like March is hitting us with a blast of the real thing... the snow part, at least. I had to wade through about a foot of it this morning walking Coco to the end of the drive. I don't normally do that anymore, btw, since Alida is nearly 10 now, but since big sis spent the night with about 200 kids at Manipogo up in St. Laurent, Coco was feeling a little lost this morning. She's not used to sleeping in a room by herself, and the house was just too quiet, I think, even though I tried to make up for it by singing the good morning song really loudly to wake her up. She didn't even want to go to school today, and that's never happened before. Poor thing. Anyway, Alida will be back from her adventure this afternoon, so all will be right in her little world again then.

Hi Debby... oh you're brave... waves are tough! Gel pens work quite well, or a bit of acrylic, to get your whites back. Another thing I'd suggest is to experiment with a craft blade, just lightly scrape the paper to lift the top layer off a little here and there (works best on heavier paper and non-staining pigments, but it's worth trying). You might also try strategically adding a little white paint splatter by tapping a loaded brush on your finger (practise first, and don't forget to mask off areas you want to protect! ) Sounds like you got some good critiques there already. The only thing I'd add is that the rocks could use a shadow to ground them a little more. We did this exercise last year at Arts West artist retreat where we painted a handful of pebbles. Later on at home I painted them again pointing strong light from different angles at them and painting the different shadow lengths. It's really cool, the interesting shapes you get... completely changes your empty space shapes too.

I have to watch my internet time closely these days, but I'll try to check in a little more regularly so I don't shock you so much when I do pop up

Have a great day all!

Irrylath · #12 03-02-2012, 11:59 AM

Hi y'all! Thanks for the welcome!

Debby, you inspired me to look up and print out the application, thanks! Oh and your motivation! :hands over freshly cleaned and pressed motivation: Thanks for lending it to me! Turns out that the start date is May 3rd, but I can choose to go for a single day or half the season or whatever. It's a great little town that way. I'm not stressing out in the least, if I have product, I will go to the market. If I turn out to not get enough done, I will make sure I do it next year. I'm thinking of getting a catalog of Cascade 220 (my main yarn) and have several designs people can custom order...I may have too many ideas for my head.

Sigrun, that's an awesome rug! I love Thor, I have a connection with the viking gods that isn't really supported by my ancestry but hey if it works!

GG, yeah we got snow. The heavy wet stuff, so I wasn't allowed to drive anywhere. My common sense made me do it. It's been a scarily mild winter, yea?

Eva, looking forward to seeing those dolls spiffed up!

Martha...speaking of someone giving you a computer...I may (just may!) be able to help you out. PM me with what you need to use a computer for, what kind of software you NEED, and what you can afford to pay. If nothing, then I respect that and will still see what I can do. I have friends and family who may(again, MAY) be willing/able to help. It would be an old one, but one that works...no promises mind you! The thought of helping didn't even occur to me until what'shername said something...

Margo, puppy sketches? I want to make some! or see some! Or go paint at my local art fair whenever that is...I love that part of WC, I'm always inspired here!

I think I caught everyone...if I missed you, say something!
Peace, love and goodwill!
Irry

**DrDebby** · #13 03-02-2012, 01:22 PM

Eva, are you getting any rest? Looking forward to the spruced up dolls.

Margo, yes, the time thing is a huge factor when trying to get something down quickly and getting the color. A pencil or pen is fine if I'm just doing a line drawing and some quick shading, but I can see even then with the right pallet and a brush, painting could be just as quick or quicker.

The less pain factor in the hands is a good consideration as well having chronic tendonitis in both wrists.

Martha,

for you that something will come your way soon.

Esther, you're back again.

Poor Coco. I guess I never had that problem being the oldest child. When my siblings were gone it was a relief.

I thought I was pretty brave too, painting waves right out of the starting gate. Then, I get this week's assignment, gulls.

Irry, thank you for taking such good care of my motivation.

I think I do need it back as I am starting to do our taxes today.

And, I've got those gulls to paint. I found the local farmer's market to be a great jumping off point for my candy business. Ours doesn't start until July. But that is because you won't find any local produce available till then, being at over 3000 feet in elevation.

Well, after chores yesterday, I did not paint.

Instead I was reading the library books I got about paper making. Fun reading. I want to try making paper. Then decided to do something about those stupid GF brownies. Since it didn't taste like a brownie to me, but more like a chocolate cake, I decided that what it needed was frosting. However, I can't do dairy. There goes the buttercream frosting I know how to make. So, I pulled out the powdered sugar and verified it was gluten free. I have a jar of coconut oil and I have coconut milk in the fridge. Hmm... yup, it's worth a try. I have the most pristine white frosting that tastes like coconut on my chocolate cake. Yum.

Then I looked at my new assignment for the Imaginary Visit.

We're supposed to paint gulls? Not only that, we are supposed to not be a slave to the photo, but put some thought into making it our own based on our emotional response. Of course, my response was humor. We'll see IF I can paint birds (something I've never even drawn before!) The one reference looked like a couple of gossips. Gossiping Gulls has a nice alliteration.

I couldn't help it, I imagined a little white picket fence between the two and some sort of outlandish garden hats on their heads.

I wonder if the instructor will appreciate it? Actually, I wonder if I can get it down on paper?

poochemio · #14 03-02-2012, 01:35 PM

Hello Irry and Esther! The Land of Enchantment is New Mexico. At one point all the state license plates had some sort of catchy nickname for the state printed on them. The Land of Enchantment was New Mexico's. It has always been precisely that on my many visits over the last 30 years, and then when I was fortunate enough to get to move here it seemed the appropriate thing for me to put up with the avatar.

Yes Irry, I started sketching my dog regularly when I was learning to draw, then I realized doing it every day would do me more good than occasionally. She is a very muscular dog with short hair so it has been a very good way to learn to show musculature, and has helped me with my life drawing. Then when I wanted to learn watercolors she became my daily life model and muse for those. Most of them are her asleep as she is in constant motion otherwise, but I have branched into doing quick gestures of that as well. I heartily recommend incorporating any life model that is in your home or close by.

Martha sweetie I'm rooting for you and for the solution to your woes to appear. It is inspiring that you are staying focused and going forward with your dreams inspite of this onslaught of unpleasantness.

I just got a delivery of new toys, so I think I shall go play for awhile, it snowed earlier and the wind is cold so it may be an indoor play date.

EvaJ · #15 03-02-2012, 06:59 PM

It has been cold and windy here today and then we are suppose to be in the 80's all weekend. Weird weather everywhere this year. We have had wind almost every day and yes we do get quite a bit of wind as we are along the Colorado River between two mountain ranges, but usually we only will have wind a couple of days at a time and then a lot of sunny mild days with no wind.

The dolls are done. I didn't do a lot to them. I just cleaned them up, washed the clothes and redressed them. One has a different outfit but I am not pleased with it so it will probably change. That is the baby doll on in the jump suit. I had it in stock but after looking at it for a while, it is right. I did add shoes and the Chatty Patty, I added a brush and mirror because one of the things she says is about a brush and mirror. She says quite a bit and it is unusual that these dolls still work as she was make by Mattel in 1965. All this dolls are from the 60's. The one in the orange plaid is a doll made in France. One of my internet buddies from France let me know who she was. The chair that she is beside is the chair John found and thought it was so unique that we had to have it.

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